The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) and fashion house Gucci have chosen nine documentaries to receive production and finishing finances from the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, including Marc Silver’s 3 ½ Minutes (pictured) and Jamie Meltzer’s Freedom Fighters.

The jury selected its picks from 560 submissions hailing from more than 50 countries. They will receive a total of US$150,000 in grants. All of the films “highlight and humanize critical domestic and international social issues” and three of the films were selected to receive funding through the Spotlighting Women Documentary Award in partnership with the Kering Foundation.

Projects that will collectively receive $100,000 total from the 2014 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund are Marc Silver’s 3 ½ Minutes, about the shooting death of Florida teen Jordan Davis; Pietra Brettkelly’s A Flickering Truth, which profiles film preservationists in Afghanistan; Nicole H. Horanyi’s Afghan Justice, about the only foreign lawyer with a license to work in Afghan courts; May Abdalla’s Cold Rush, about the scientists and entrepreneurs studying and investing in thawing Arctic ice; Jamie Meltzer’s Freedom Fighters, which follows a Dallas detective agency focused on wrongful imprisonment; and Kristi Jacobson’s Out of Mind, a film about solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system.

Three films will receive $50,000 through the 2014 Spotlighting Women Documentary Award: Gini Reticker’s Awakening, a multimedia project and doc about five women fighting for human rights during the Arab uprisings; Leslee Udwin’s India’s Daughter, which examines the life and brutal gang-rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in Delhi in 2012; and Guillaume Suon’s The Storm Makers, about globalization and contemporary Cambodia.

About The Author

Daniele Alcinii is a news reporter at realscreen, the leading international publisher of non-fiction film and television industry news and content. He joins the rs team with journalism experience following a stint out west with Sun Media in Edmonton's Capital Region, and communications work in Melbourne, Australia and Toronto. You can follow him on Twitter at @danielealcinii.